Today’s the last day of the postcard fiction contest. I’ll give it a couple of days to allow for the vagaries of postal delivery. Then I’ll assess the entries and choose a winner for the $25 prize. I’ll reveal the results next Wednesday, so you don’t have to wait too long. I think it’s fun…
Tag: Writer Wednesday
Writer Wednesday: Priorities
What really matters most? Whether you think about it consciously or not, you’re always making choices. What matters most to you may vary from moment to moment throughout your day. You may not realise it all the time, but you’re ranking everything that comes your way, often in a casual way and frequently without much…
Writer Wednesday: Writing in the Digital Age
Midway through a hectic week — I want to write up the fabulous time I had on Monday at the Arts Center, but I need to work on my presentation for tonight’s gig: Social Media & Writers in the Digital Age with K. A. Laity 7pm Albany Public Library, Main Branch Auditorium Wonder how social…
Writer Wednesday: A Sense of Wonder
Some days are a lot harder than others. In the midst of even more bad news that Iain Banks is terminally ill and after the unexpected death of Rick Hautala last week, so many writers I know are simply reeling lately. Friends mourn of course, but readers who never met them anywhere except between the…
Writer Wednesday: Postcard Fiction Contest 2013
An inspiration I had last year and I repeat it now: a contest to celebrate brevity in fiction. Write a story that fits on a postcard! Send it to me. I’ll choose my favourite and give it a prize — let’s say $25. Entries open now until 1st May, 2013. All postcards I have received…
Writer Wednesday: Awakening Imagination
I was going to say the best way to open your portal to the imagination would be to sit at your computer and shout, “Release the Kraken!” It could work! But the truth is for a lot of us,having finally carved out time to be creative, find it difficult to open up that magic door…
Writer Wednesday: Write More
I’m sending off my prose writing class today: it’s odd having two half term classes instead of one. Mostly it feels as if we barely got started and we’re done. I don’t know how much they will take in from our dizzy spin through writing. Maybe nothing. Some will continue writing (probably the same ones…
Writer Wednesday: Outlines
Every semester I have students who come to me with trembling lower lips and big cow eyes, who express amazement that they got such a bad grade on their paper. “All my teachers have said I write really well!” They’re certain that I am blind to genius. Fortunately, I tell them, I believe in revision…
Writer Wednesday: Time Inventory
Continuing the theme from last week of ‘know yourself‘ — and more importantly, I suppose, to know your habits — I have some homework for those who would actually like to write more. Take inventory! Not of things, but of time. Here’s the form. Print it out and consider a typical day. I know that…
Writer Wednesday: Know Yourself
γνῶθι σεαυτόν Pronounced gnōthi seauton, this famous Greek phrase means ‘Know yourself.” It’s been attributed to a variety of old sages, but if a thing’s worth saying, it will get repeated. Know yourself: in the context of writing it means you will get the most work done and pleasingly if you take advantage of your…